Former Brooklyn federal jail guard admits he took bribes, smuggled contraband
A former correction officer at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center confessed Thursday to taking bribes to smuggle contraband into the troubled jail.
Quandelle Joseph, 33, pleaded guilty to a bribery charge in Brooklyn Federal Court, admitting he broke bad just a few months after taking the job at the Sunset Park jail.
He could face up to three years behind bars based on federal sentencing guidelines, though the maximum sentence for the charge is 15 years.
Joseph started working at the MDC in May 2020 and the feds started looking into him in December of that year, when jail staff smelled weed coming from a racketeering suspect’s cell and found a contraband phone.
Video showed Joseph paying the inmate’s housing unit a visit, even though he was supposed to be working at a different unit on lockdown — and when he left, he was no longer carrying a bedroll he’d brought in with him, according to a criminal complaint.
Joseph admitted to taking bribes between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1 2021. “During that time I accepted and agreed to receive money to bring contraband into MDC Brooklyn,” he told Judge Dora Irizarry.
Federal prosecutors put the total he took at tens of thousands of dollars, though his lawyer, Robert LaRusso, said he expects to dispute whether prosecutors can prove the amount of bribe money taken and whether Joseph should be considered a public official.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
The feds also accused Joseph of using a burner phone to text one inmate and warn him of pending searches.
“Keep your phones cleannnnnnnnnn erase texts and call logs every night,” he texted, according to the complaint.
The Metropolitan Detention Center has come under repeat criticism for its dismal conditions and poor staffing levels over the past several years.
Last week, a federal judge in Manhattan issued a 19-page written ruling describing those conditions as so “dreadful” that he wouldn’t send a 70-year-old fentanyl dealer to the jail before his sentencing.
The site has housed several high-profile defendants, including sex-trafficking R&B superstar R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell and N train subway shooter Frank James.
